Obama's Three New Serious Health Care Problems

There may now be three new genuinely serious problems for Obama when it comes to his particular brand of health care reform ideas.

Former Governor Sarah Palin speaking out so strongly against it combined with her grassroots appeal could galvanize resistance even more than it is - and combined with her ability to drive media coverage could prove to be a new major stumbling block for him at a time when he has plenty already.

Additionally, he likely wanted to get this done before recess because they feared what might happen when the politicians went home and couldn't control it, or the media. Do you really think Carnahan's experience is filling him with warm fuzzies over health care reform just now? And even if he proves to be a lost cause, it isn't like other pols aren't watching.

Finally, there's a very real hidden danger for him. If value and productivity for the country comes to define how much effort goes into saving someone, his importance in office might not make it to life support. It could just be left to die on the vine while the country moves on after the 2010 elections and a significantly more Republican Congress starts running things and telling Obama what to do for a change.

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

A slightly far off issue is, if defeating health care reform becomes in any way also a victory of sorts for Sarah Palin, it might be her first win over Obama and also not her last.

Comments

[Ian]

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Wow, if she really believes that, Trig might be the brains of the Palin family.

"Our new Death Panel has become the ultimate power in the Obamaverse."

"Now, witness the power of this fully armed and operational babykilling station!"

[Alex]

That was heavy on the hyperbole. Love her, but that could've been edited a little better.

[dad29]

The (D) Boyzzzz have gambled their entire future with "Porkulus."

One certainty: voters "vote their pocketbooks." If Porkulus does not deliver a lot of jobs--a HELLUVALOTTA jobs--by 6/2010, Obama is a lame duck in January 2011.

Healthcare is a smokescreen, in that light. He might win, he might lose. But it is irrelevant compared to the jobs issue.

That's why Porkulus was structured to deliver more 'bang' in early 2010. But given what we know about the economy, it's a gamble.

We can have a recovery-without-jobs, and so far, that's what's shaping up.

[Pug]

Don't you think maybe Palin was a little overboard with this?

C'mon, seriously.

[louis c]

"Death panel" will stick. It's short, catchy, and true.

[Gail]

Ian: Don't underestimate the coercive power of government control (which is all this healthcare is, by the way). One of the downfalls of Hillarycare was after they came out from behind their secret planning committee and people started looking at the thing, it was discovered that our betters would pay for amnio, pre-natal, birth, but NO COVERAGE for the defective child should you choose to allow the child to live. In those days people still had the capacity to be horrified.

The leftist fundamentalists decry how Repugs have widened the cap between the haves and have nots. Think about it - under Hillarycare care only the rich would have been able to nurture and love their vulnerable children when the government is given power to make our choices. This is just one small example. Many of us do not believe this criminal gang's version of healthcare will be much different. Hey- but if you want to roll the dice and rush this thing through - you seem to have faith in your brains and those of our would-be masters.

There are very good and intelligent reasons that the power of the federal government is constitutionally limited.

Wait...nevermind...I know I feel safe in the ivy league geniuses running things.

[the chef of sandwiches]

Palin is right on the mark Anyone who thinks it is hyperbole or that she's gone overboard needs to read the articles about 0's science diktat, um .. I mean science "czar", John Holdren over at zombietime. Chilling stuff. 0's point men on this issue are fricking nazis. Ezekiel Emmanuel, Orsag, et. al. are most assuredly modern day Mengeles.

[Mike]

Dan,

The healthcare debate is an important debate. But doesn't saying something like Palin did that is the opposite of true just shut down debate? I think both sides should ignore Palin and focus on the issues. Republicans need to get their party of ideas mojo back.

[unseen]

Don't you think maybe Palin was a little overboard with this?

C'mon, seriously.

Posted by: Pug

How so? right now decisions on what is covered and what is not covered is based on insurance companies profit and terms of coverage.

If Obamacare is passed the government will have the power to decide what is covered and who is covered. Politicians being politicans. There favorite groups will be covered at the expense of those not on the A list. Just like in the USSR the ruling elite got the best healthcare, the best cars , etc under Obamacare those in power will get certain procedures covered before others. For instance say there is enough money to cover one of the following three health problems. Sickle cell, AIDS or dementia. A politician would look at how much they need the black vote, the gay vote or the senior citizen vote and have their handpicked members of the board of oversight act accordingly. Or simply the threat of taking care away from one of the groups would be enough. Look at the dems use of fear on the senior citizens for the last 70 years IRT Social security and the GOP party.

Or the dems use of fear IRT the draft for younger votes. There is nothing in hisotry or human nature that says either political party will not use the new healthcare committeees to give and take away political power from groups.

In fact Palin if anything understated the threat of this political power play by Washington/Dems on our freedoms

[Dan Riehl]

Look, I'm not interested in simply inflamming the debate over health care. But the people who think she went overboard really don't understand the ultimate concept of the plan. That is precisely what is at the core of the methodoly. We spend where we should, or must - and we cut by not offering care.

Say you're 65. Already have lung problems, got maybe 5 10 years, because the heart ain't doing so hot either.

So you develop an unrelated cancer that vigorous treatment might cure for the most part, and no matter what bys you 3-5 yrs with treatment. Without treatment, you're toast in a year.

Stock up on pain meds under a goverment plan. Now, tell me how that is NOT a "death panel". And just how much power do you think you as a citizen are really going to have in what defnes good and bad spending.

That's the more calm explanation for the term she used. She wanted and needed a quick soundbyte. She nailed it. I'm not going to criticize it a bit. Just watch Obama try to say it isn't up against a serious, informed opposition. He won't even put himself in that position because he'd be toast.

[Dan]

If you think "death panel" is overboard. YOU ARE DEAD WRONG.
In every country where national healthcare exists, there is inevitably a government panel that decides based on cost etc whether someone will get care or not. They make life and death decisions by putting people on waiting lists or denying care, hence the DEATH PANEL!

WAKE UP BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

[joyMc]

Ok, no more kidding around about the snitch site. Here is a serious thought I keep rolling around in my little mind.
A prediction, a citizen's concern:

This is not a rumor, it is a prediction and a citizen's concern. We still have a first ammendment right and so I use mine here while that is still possible. Many people are not aware that the state of Texas provides services to individuals who qualify for Medicaid called by various names such as CBA program, attendant care giver services, provider services, custodial home care services. This is done to keep people out of nursing homes. How it works is that an individual who demonstrates inability (per state standards) to pay for attendant care giver services but needs them gets those services from a licensed agency called a PAS agency (personal assistance services). The agency then bills the state for services rendered and is reimbursed by the state. Hundreds of these agencies exist in Texas. After the patient dies the state places a lien on the patient's home or other assets under something called the "reimbursement recovery program". When the estate is settled,which usually means just the sale of the deceased person's house, the state has to be paid off first. This allows the state to collect some payment for the services. Naturally the patient's hiers are not pleased. And of course if the patient has no assets that can be encumbered with a lien, the state collects nothing. Of course these liens are at whatever amount the state calculates the patient's bill ended up being. My prediction, and my fear is that because a single payer health care system such as that proposed by President Obama and congress is so expensive, so unsustainable,(as demonstrated in the UK et al) the fed will quickly begin exploring ways to pay for the system such as greatly increased taxation, and of course FEDERAL LIENS on the estates of deceased patients. In real estate law a FEDERAL LIEN trumps all other possible encumbrances that could be placed on a piece of property and must be satisfied when an estate is settled ahead of all other liens and encumbrances. The precedent is right here in the state of Texas and I am sure it goes on in other states. This would amount to a huge (beyond huge) property grab on the part of the federal government and of course a whole new burocracy would have to be created to manage it, hence even more expense, even larger government. It could effectively communize America. Just a thought, America. Do you want to leave yourself open for that? Do you trust your government that much? If so just bend over and assume the position. Someday widows may be renting their homes from the fed. Either a sick person has to get all property out of his own name, or perhaps a whole new insurance derivative product will emerge, "PAY OF YOUR DEATH LIEN INSURANCE." Can you afford it?

[jann]

I LOVE this woman! Death Panel is PERFECT, and it's true. Try to talk it away all you want that is what is going to happen. Rationing makes the "Universal" in health care. The government has NO business to be in the Health business at all. IT IS THE GOVERNMENT! The government is so big now that people think it's NORMAL for them to run all kinds of things. Cars??? Banks??? Come on people. It's NOT NORMAL and it's dangerous for everyone. Greed and Power in large doses is NOT a good thing at all. The truth needs to be spoken BOLDLY. DEATH PANEL, perfect.

[Able Stanton]

Palin needs to shut up. She has been the single most influential Republican in the drive to marginalize our party as the party of stupidity and ignorance.

It's one thing when anonymous numbskulls show up at town hall meetings and complain about the government planning to euthanize grandma. It's far more damaging when our own Miss Popular stands up - YET AGAIN - and says something so laughably and blatantly false.

If anyone here really believes that ANY health care plan that could emerge from the current government would include "death panels" convened to mandate euthanasia for Downs Syndrome children, you probably shouldn't be participating in the Democratic process.

Read a book, for Christ's sake.

[louis c]

You are wrong about the priority of federal liens. There is no federal property law. The feds are bound by the same property law as everyone else in the state. If the federal lien had automatic first priority over existing liens, then the feds would have to pay just compensation to the prior lienholders because they are taking their property, i.e., the security of the first lien.

Regarding the placement of liens for elderly health care, as an attorney, that is a troublesome situation. A client walks in and wants to put an elderly parent in an assisted facility. The assisted facility wants paid but will take a security interest in their assets. The client (the future heirs) asks the attorney to protect the assets. In other words, the heirs are asking the lawyer to preserve their inheritance at the taxpayer's expense -- the client is ultimately asking the lawyer (as a taxpayer) to subsidize their inheritance.

[joyMc]

Any little details re preeminence of federal liens are just a matter of legislation, believe it. You can be sure no one will buy a house with a fed lien on it and the fed eventually has the right to forclose and force sale of the house to collect.

[Gina]

We're already living in a world where some 90 percent of children with Down syndrome are aborted, usually with the encouragement of the mother's physician. Is the idea of cutting off health care for the few who make it to birth really such a stretch?

The only quibble I had with "death panel" was that she shouldn't have put it in quotation marks, as it wasn't a direct quote.

[WYN]

The Kenyan Chimp in Chief is sinking like a stone and I'm loving every minute of it!

My message to Barry al Hussein "Hugo" Obama, Botox Pelosi and the Chinless Harry Reid is: Bring it on baby!

Please, please, please ram government run, socialized medicine into law cuz the backlash will be monumental! We will finally see armed conflict in Middle America. The vast majority of the nation will finally rise up and defeat the left-wing, limp-wristed anti-Americans, who want lawyer-politicians in DC to centrally plan every aspect of their lives like their jobs, their healthcare, right down to want automobiles they WILL BE ALLOWED TO PURCHASE. Bring it on, baby!

[Any]

Hey Able-
Read Dan Riehl's post above yours for chrissakes. Then read it again.

[Anon]

Death panel is hyperbolic, but isn't one of the core concepts of the Democrats plan that a panel of experts is going to make decisions about coverage and decide on the best treatment options?

At the end of the day, giving this kind of veto power over what a person and their doctor want, is a life or death panel.

I don't disagree that we spend too much money on end of life care, my belief is that this stems not from the patients themselves, but from the doctors. Indeed, there are a gazillion anecdotal stories about old people who have to fight their doctors to stop invasive treatments to keep them alive.

I don't disagree that our health care is too expensive and that some kind of cost controls need to be put in place.

But I do disagree that the best way to do this is through a government panel that will make the final decision on who gets what treatment when. This isn't better than health insurance companies denying claims, it is exactly the same, maybe worse.

The collective denial on the left of what the plan they support actual means and does is breathtaking. But, I believe that is because most of them don't take the cost control part seriously. They don't care about cost, they only use that talking point to try and get moderates and business to support their plan. They fully expect and believe that once the plan is passed there will be NO RATIONING for anyone, that everyone will get as much health care as they want and it will be paid for by taxing the evil rich.

[rssg]

The Genius in the White House, who never worked a day in his sorry life, who had the skids greased for him in school, who never owned a business, met a payroll, not even every worked in a regular private sector job in his life, is now becomming before our eyes like Mussolini, Stalin and Chavez.

Obamacare = a transfer of wealth from white, middle class America to non-citizen, illegal alien Latinos, nothing more. That's what it is all about.

[joyMc]

louis c, To clarify, I did not mean that a federal lein trumps something such as a first mortgage. The situation to which you refer is between a private business ie an elder care facility and an individual. I don't have a bone to pick with an elder care facility making a private arrangement with the responsible family members of a demented individual (for example) to collect payment for services. The taxpayer should not have to foot the bill while the heirs collect the proceeds. Universal health care coverage is being presented to Americans as an insurance situation that will be managed by the federal government and that eventually everyone can receive. Under what insurance model does the insurance company get to confiscate your property afte you die? It is not being presented as a trap in which you end up losing everything you worked for all your life and hoped to leave to your children. But it would most certianly evolve into this given our current lack of any checks and balances on government.

[WBestPresidentEver]

http://joinpatientsfirst.com/the_ad

Sign the petition.. !

[Lala]

When the bills come due the Federal Govt. always gets paid first if taxes are owed.

[A. Stephens]

Able Stanton,
life-death, surgical, and treatment decisions have been made, are being made, and will continue to be made by committees and boards outside of the patients control and absent family concerns, everywhere there is government controlled health care. Know how I know? I've read about it. A lot.

WYN,
have some respect for your own right to free speech.

Sarah Palin,
thank you for your courage. Knowing the carpet-bombing starts the minute her name is even broached, she marches on in the great American tradition of honesty, integrity, and holding representative government accountable to it's constituency.

[PatR]

Anyone foolish enough to believe government officials is foolish enough to have their individual rights taken away from them.

Look, a lot of teachers and nurses, among others are either uneducated or miseducated when it comes to what this nation is about and supposed to be.

LIBERTY. Of the individual. Private contracts. Private property. Private business transactions between willing parties.

Over 85% of Americans have health insurance? Who doesn't? Illegal aliens, those who can afford it but choose not to, those switching jobs and their new insurance hasn't kicked in yet. There are only about 15 million chronically without health insurance. Address that issue; don't screw up the rest that most Americans are happy with.

It's all irrelevant anyway. Obamacare is dead. Even the Messiah can't force the majority of Americans to believe the snake oil he is peddling.

"Behold the God that bleeds!" The public now sees Obama for who he is: a slick talking, radical lawyer. Nothing else.

When you are DEPENDENT on the government for your job and for your healthcare, decisions on your job and your healthcare will be made with political influence in mind - decisions that favor some "favored constituencies" and not others. Those who reliably vote for, or contribute money to, the "political class" in power are the ones who will receive preferred treatment in employment and in life and death issues.

And there are actually Americans who want this? Oh yeah, they're called liberal democrats (and a few dangerously stupid independents and so called republicans).

You voted for a race-baiting Marxist in the White House. Marxism means to CENTRALLY PLAN everything for the supposed "common good" - which really means, for the preferred, favored, constituencies.

[WBestPresidentEver]

The government is asking for your help. They are already building detentions centers for anyone who oposes Obama's policies.

http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=292

[Anon]

It's a pity that Obama's plan was so bad.

I would have loved to see him use his political capital to get a good health care bill passed, one that would address the systemic flaws in Medicare and Medicaid, that would address the root causes of why private health insurance costs continue to increase and that provides catastrophic health care to those 10-15 million who truly have fallen through the cracks and can't obtain health care.

But, what we got instead was basically Stimulus II. An overbroad, bloated, pork filled piece of legislation that adds who knows how many layers of new government bureacracy, vastly expands the federal government's powers, and worst of all, instead of dealing with the cost issue in an honest way, punts it down the road 10 years by including all kinds of clearly false rosey budget predictions.

We do need health care reform in this country and this was a great opportunity.

Unfortunately, Obama and the Democrats stayed true to form and instead of a plan to fix the central problems, they created a plan as a boon to all their favorite constituencies.

[Mark_0454]

Isn't the mid-year report on the economy (a month late) coming in before the vote on health care. If the deficit projections are big, it could increase resistance to health care.

[Elizabeth]

I thought I would pop in as a Canadian and say that I am very relieved to see Palin taking a strong stance on this.

I have lived under nationalized healthcare my whole life and I encourage you to fight to keep it from happening in the States. Once it happens it is nearly impossible to go back. I was raised on propaganda that our patriotic identity is based on our "universal healthcare". Everyone I know has a horror story from the hospital. It is a multi-year wait to get a family doctor, so most times people end up in the ER for EVERYTHING. Yet, politicians and NHL/CFL players never have to wait. Family doctors if you are lucky enough to have one work for the gov't not you and get paid based on the number of clients. My doctor forbids more than one question a visit and keeps her hand on the door handle during the entire 15 mins I am lucky to have her attention. She knows I cannot go to anyone else. This is not to say our doctors and nurses are bad people, but they are overworked, understaffed and in an evil system.

Oftentimes, our only hope as Canadians is to go to the US and max out our credit cards to ensure we don't die on a waiting list - or simply while waiting for a diagnosis. There are more MRIs in NYC than in our entire country.

Her only problem in using the term Death Panel, is that she did not go far enough. She neglected to include the fact of waiting lists. Those who decide who gets to the front of the waiting lists end up being the death panel. No politician - conservative, liberal or otherwise can touch this issue or question it. It is a scared cow and all Canadians have been brainwashed from birth...even though every single one of us has a friend or loved one with a horror story. I met our current conservative prime minister 5 yrs ago and asked him if he would abide by the Quebec Supreme Court ruling (look up the Chaoulli case) that the illegality of private insurance is a violation of our rights. His eyes glazed over and he fed me pap about socialized care that I knew he did not believe, but he knew there was no other way to get elected.

Please fight this! I someday may need to take myself or a family member to the US to get testing, a diagnosis or care that is INACCESSIBLE here. And to those who say she over-reacted in bringing up Trig: Keep in mind that in both of our countries the majority of doctors recommend "termination" for Down's and many other things. Trig's very existence is considered frivolous by more people than you think. Read the science czar's own statements about kids under the age of two and the "feeble-minded".

I have not even touched on the fact that all the universal systems are only half as good as they are due to the inventions of the States. Ask yourself why most healthcare innovation comes from America. Sorry for the rant...love your work Dan!

[MarkJ]

Ian,

"Wow, if she really believes that, Trig might be the brains of the Palin family."

Well, we definitely know one thing: Trig is smarter than YOU.

[joyMc]

lala, that is my point. I know of a huge piece of property here in Texas that has set idle for 2 decades with streets and curbs and fire hydrants and a beautiful sign at the entrance. It was supposed to be a big custom housing development. The developer went broke, had not been paying the IRS for some time on income from previous projects. The federal tax lein is greater than the sales value of the property. No one will even buy it for the amount of the lein because it is not worth that much on today's market. it will sit empty until the fed decides to sell it off at less than the value of the lein. When it does sell, the fed will get their money first. Should the federal government succeed in taking over the healthcare industry, we will all be getting our leins if we get health care. They have to sustain the unsustainable somehow.

[Texan]

Palin has completely lost her marbles, if she had any to begin with.

[Bob]

"We do need health care reform in this country and this was a great opportunity.

Unfortunately, Obama and the Democrats stayed true to form and instead of a plan to fix the central problems, they created a plan as a boon to all their favorite constituencies."

Sorry, anon, but people who support a side in the healthcare debate that offers no serious alternative plan, that continually acts in bad-faith, don't deserve to have their complaints taken seriously. You have yet to offer any feasible, comprehensive proposals to deliver healthcare more efficiently with better cost controls. All you ever do is complain about other peoples' efforts. Therefore, you are tacitly advocating for a continuation of the status quo, which is the worst of all possible outcomes.

You act like it's everyone else's fault that you can't get some imaginary healthcare system that manages to resolve the irreconcilable demands that you place on it. It's like demanding that someone tells you what is the answer to the square root of -1. But it's more the fault of people like you that we can't seem to get effective healthcare reform, because you've become the intentional or unintentional allies of big business interests who have no intention of allowing it to happen. If you engaged in a good-faith debate and put forth serious proposals of your own, then you might have some basis to whine about it. But you haven't, and so you don't.

[rrpjr]

Palin's words were a piercing and electrifying truth revealing that she understands — as few if any conservative politicians seem to — the nature of the Left. “Death Panel” was brilliant coinage mainly for how it reached into our collective subconscious to evoke nightmare visions like Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and the farmer carting away the "unproductive." But in fact the term represents easy prophecy if one really understands the Left, either through reading Orwell or just looking at history.

[Anon]

THe status quo is not the worst of all possible outcomes, passage of Obama's plan is the worst of all possible outcomes

Okay here is my alternative plan for the LAST TIME:

1) Abolish the community rating system, so that health insurance will more closely resemble auto insurance...the premium you pay reflects your usage of services.

2) Create a national federally subsidized catastrophic health insurance program to cover the 10-15 million people who are actually chronically uninsured.

3) Develop an incremental plan that over 5-7 years will streamline the bloated reimbursement codes so they are more uniform, thus reducing the cost of provider compliance for multiple systems.

4) For those states that desire a different/better/more universal/more comprehensive health care program, provide a one time federal block grant to states that allows them to pilot their own versions of universal health care for 3-5 years.

How's that for starters?

[jpp]

Sorry Bob, you're just another white idiot masturbating to pictures of your half-breed African Prince Barry.

Let me educate you:

First, we don't need "comprehensive" anything. The US healthcare industry is absolutely first rate, that's why other from around the world flock here specifically for it.

There are only about 10-15 million people without healthcare insurance. They are mostly the one's who voted for a Kenyan/Indonesian, with Marxist tendencies to be in the White House. Therefore, they are mostly too stupid to know how to care for themselves, how to find a job with health insurance, etc., so there rely on government to care for them. They're also called Democrats.

3 out of 4 Americans not only have health insurance but are satisfied with it. 100% of Americans have "access" to healthcare, it's called the Emergeny Room.

The Chimp in Chief, if he has any brains, would create portability by way of HSA's, create tax free health insurance accounts.

Also, our Marxist in Chief, if he wasn't a Marxist, would slash tax rates for everyone and every business, say a 18% flat tax rate. That would stimulate so much economic activity that our economy would be on fire.

But then again, "Hugo" Obama doesn't like to cut tax rates because most of his supporters/voters don't actually pay income tax and he also doesn't like them because he then can't "centrally plan" the economy and the country.

[joyMc]

Bob, that was all a bunch of excellent personal insults and democrat party propganda. Do you happen to know anything of substance about healthcare reform?

[Gina]

Jpp, if I may -- watch it with the "chimp" language. We don't need to lower ourselves to Daily Kos levels.

[MICHAEL]

Did ANYONE actually read the article you posted? First, Mr. Emanuel was one of three authors. Second, that recommendation was made the context of medical ethic principles, not actual policies coming from the White House. That juxtaposition is not only dishonest and disingenuous, but also factually incorrect....(which is redundant..) We know Ms. Palin did not actually read the article. I am surprised that you did NOT

[Rich K]

I repeat if only to hear myself think: If this New Way is so damn good WHY WONT those trying to pass it join into it ????
Thats what I thought,Crickets chirping!

[Anon]

Oh and

6) Spend some money on rooting out the BILLIONS in fraud that occur in Medicare and Medicaid [It must be true since even Obama says that these programs waste billions of dollars!]

7) Develop a system for Medicare that makes the person's coverage somewhat in relation to their lifetime contributions. [I know its heresey from the right and the left].

8)Penalize Medicare and Medicaid recipients for using the ER for frivolous and unnecessary situations.

**Eventually a solution for Medicaid and Medicare will have to be found that includes some form of rationing, either by creating a separate high risk pool or by a managed care model or some other way.

**Truthfully, Medicare was a decent idea for its time, but the demographics no longer support it.

[jpp]

Gina - sorry, I have freedom of expression and I will exercise it. No one on the left or the right will discourage me. The biggest problem with conservatives is the timidity they have been portraying for years now. What the GOP needs is another Lee Attwater. If you're too young to know who that was, look him up.

The left, including the MSM for eight years, called GW Bush a chimp and no one complained about it in the MSM.

Novels, stage-plays, movies, images/posters and songs were made postulating Bush's assasination and calling him a chimp.

Ain't paybacks a bitch?

[JimK]

Go Sarah Go. 2012.

Exactly what this nation needs. A common sensed oriented "commoner" to kick the ass of the elite, feminized political class represented by Barry "Black Panther in a business suit" Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Kerry, Durbin, Kennedy, Boxer, etc.

A woman who actually worked her way up from nothing, instead of a pampered affirmative action prince, who actually thinks he's the Messiah.

[Bob]

"How's that for starters?"

1) With auto insurance, if it becomes too expensive to pay for a comprehensive policy (maybe the person has had too many DUIs), they can choose either to quit driving or limit their policy to incomplete coverage. In the realm of healthcare, doesn't that translate into either dying for lack of affordable coverage or not being reimbursed for what could be life-saving treatments that aren't covered under the policy? However inconvenient, not driving is not quite on the same level as not living.

2) The numbers for uninsured that even most Republican politicians use is 45 million to 49 million. Where are you getting your figures from, and how much more would it cost if the larger figure is correct?

3) How much will this save, roughly? Is this really any different than Obama's "find efficiencies" provision that you mock?

4) I'm sure that the Republicans will be wholly supportive of this plan (NOT)

I appreciate that you've at least thought about alternatives. But has anyone with the resources to study such things done a cost-benefit analysis of such a plan and compared it against other hypothetical plans like single-payer or the current Democratic plan? Without the financial numbers, it's essentially impossible to compare against the existing plan, where we've had extensive analysis done and have a pretty good idea of what it's going to cost. It's a bit too easy for you to say that your plan will cost less, or that it will deliver more efficient service, when it's only a few vague proposals. I'm not blaming you for that, since it's beyond the scope of one non-policy-expert to do, but you understand why your reassurances might not mean too much.

And in the real world, of course, we as individuals don't get to make our own healthcare plans and have them enacted. It's more a matter of which political side we support. As someone I presume to be a Republican supporter, the side that you support has done everything it can to thwart healthcare reform, including making up ludicrous lies about "Death Panels" and euthanizing old people. I tend to think that the clear lack of good faith in their arguments is a reflection that they have no serious interest in comprehensive healthcare reform. I mean, they controlled pretty much everything for much of the past eight years, and look what they accomplished on the healthcare front. So in a way, we can only choose between "Obamacare" and nothing at all. And in an imperfect world, there's one serious, comprehensive, well-analyzed proposal, and there's "Death Panels." That's the REAL choice here.

But thanks for sharing your ideas. I appreciate that you at least seem to offer them in good faith. But as a responsible proponent, I think you really need to flesh it out more before you can honestly say it's better.

[syn]

Death Panel is correct; my friend knows a woman in DC who was hired to sit on this panel to determine what care is valid and who is valid to receives such care.

My friend's friend is European, by the way, and even she is disturb by what is going on at those meetings.

Of course, my info is anecdotal so Obamacare supporters won't believe it however I know to is a historical fact that Statists by nature must commit to creepy-freaky things in their quest of Utopian dreams.

I'm not giving Statists the power they seek.

PS: This should please the excellent GOP strategist Able Stanton.

Met Marco Rubio last week and very much like Sarah Palin, American-sexy with an optimistic Conservative heart.

[rrpjr]

The article hardly matters. The Left will never tell you what they plan anyway. Or cannot. It is invariably too unpalatable for public consumption. The poor, unenlightened and easily frightened must be lied to for their own good.

"Death panels" -- or something very much like them -- would of course come about. The lure of the death panel, that is to say, of final and irrefutable authority over life, is shot through every one of their schemes. To be as God: the Leftist dream. This is why the Left is in such a frothing state of desire and anxiety right now; near-total control of life is within their grasp. Oppose this and you are, in a very real sense, a heretic. You must be destroyed, for the good of all.

[Lala]

Sally Pipes of the Pacific Institute examined the supposed 46 million uninsured and explains it

1. Illegals
2. people who are eligible for Medicaid and don't bother signing up.
3. people who are young and healthy and see no need for insurance at this time.
4. wealthy people.

[anon]

Bob,

You should read Megan McArdle's blog at The Atlantic, she gives a detailed breakdown of the 45-47 million so called "uninsured" and comes up with about 10 million who are chronically uninsured. But, you've been told this before by multiple people...that there are millions who 'could' afford insurance but choose not to buy it, millions more who are uninusred for only a couple of weeks between jobs...and so forth. The 47 million uninsured is a good talking point, but it is FALSE that there are 47 million People Who Cannot Get Insurance.

Again, health care is already rationed, isn't that part of the reason that we allegedly need the Democrats plan? Because the evil health insurance companies deny coverage right and left and people are dying because they can't get health care. At least with a system that is somewhat reflective of reality: a young, healthy person pays less than a sick old person, there is some level of fairness. I don't think community rating works, all it does is drive up the cost for everyone because the insurer has no way to manage risk since basically everyone pays the same premium regardless of usage.

The truth is, I don't "have" to offer a better solution, all I "have" to do is point out that the current alleged solution sucks, it will cost more, and do nothing to improve anyone's health.

"US out of Iraq now" wasn't much of an alternative plan, either, was it?

If health care was easy to fix, it would already be fixed.

I stand by my position that we should be doing things on an incremental basis, over time. Put in one fix, see how it does, tweak, it and then go on to the next.

Trying to overhaul such a complex system that represents 25% of GDP, and doing so in a hugely dishonest way, is not courting disaster, it is ensuring disaster.

[Ken]

Listen, let's just pretend that Sarah Palin has no idea what she's talking about, so that we ourselves have to divine the intentions of the Democrats regarding end of life issues, without any help from others.

Let's look at what the Democrats have done.

1. They love abortion, and always seem joyful when talking about it.

2. They love slandering Sarah Palin's family, especially her mentally handicapped son.

3. They express their joy every time anyone related to a conservative is hurt, such as when the apolitical Nancy Reagan broke her hip.

4. They openly look forward to a eugenicized future.

5. They openly state that they hope for a conservative rebellion, so that they can get a Final Solution to the red-state problem.

6. They openly identify with terrorists killing our troops.

7. They fantasize about raping conservative women.

8. They support a pedophile in Alaska, partly because he lies about Sarah Palin, but also because he supports their vision of a future in which sexual activity is not limited by gender or age.

9. They bravely attack, 6 on 1, a lone conservative black man.

WHO IN HIS RIGHT MIND WOULD TRUST HIS LIFE TO THESE DEVILS?